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From: "Richard Welch" <>
Subject: SCHARFENSTEIN, SCHARPENSTEIN, SHARP in Tewksbury and Reading
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 08:47:29 -0600


Matthias SCHARFENSTEIN was a Palatine, born about 1678 in Urbach, Grafschaft Wied (north of Koblenz, Germany). He married Dorothea Maria, daughter of Johannes Wilhelm WEYER, in 1713 in Urbach. Dorothea Maria died in 1725 in Urbach and Matthias married Anna Gertrude SCHULTZ (she was possibly a widow named ALSDOR) in 1731 in Urbach. Matthias was naturalized in New Jersey in 1744, so his date of arrival was probably at about that time. Does anyone know his exact date of arrival and the name of the ship? He died in Reading Township of Hunterdon County in 1756. Where are he and Anna Gertrude buried?

One of Mathias and Dorothea Maria's sons was Johannes Morris SCHARFENSTEIN who was born and baptized in 1714 in Urbach. Morris and his wife, Catherine, were probably married in Urbach in the mid 1730s and eventually settled in Tewksbury Township, Hunterdon County in 1764. They then moved to "Upper German Valley" in 1767 where he died in 1781. What was his date of arrival in North America and where are he and his wife buried? What was Catherine's maiden name?

The family's name in Germany was spelled SCHARFENSTEIN and was later anglicized to SCHARPENSTEIN and SHARP, but it was often misspelled in early records. The correct spelling of the name in German is SCHARFENSTEIN which means "Sharp stone". The other spellings have no meaning in German and spelling it as "Scharfensteen" would create a mispronunciation of the name.

I would like to hear from other descendants and share information. I am descended from Morris and Catherine's daughter, Dorothea (1751-1828), who married William Welsch, Jr. For those who are interested, I have a photograph of Dorothea's gravestone in the old cemetery in Long Valley that I will gladly share with other descendents. The stone is now gone.

Richard Welch
Farmington, New Mexico

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